A “killer robot” had assassinated Iran’s famous nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, when he was returning from a Caspian vacation last year, the New York Times (NYT) is reporting.
The NYT is citing American, Israeli, and Iranian officials to conclude that the scientist was killed by a remote-machine gun—a novel method of assassination, which follows the use of unmanned drones, which have been used to eliminate high-value targets. Last January, a drone had killed Iran’s top commander of the Al Quds force, Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad airport.
Fakhrizadeh was assassinated east of the capital Tehran on November 27, 2020, while he was driving with his wife to their country house in Absard.
Initially, Iranian officials had said Fakhrizadeh died in hospital due to injuries sustained during a shoot-out between his bodyguards and “armed terrorists.” Later, authorities changed tune and said a machine gun operated by “remote satellite” was the main method of assassination.
“The souped-up, remote-controlled machine gun now joins the combat drone in the arsenal of high-tech weapons for remote targeted killing. But unlike a drone, the robotic machine gun draws no attention in the sky, where a drone could be shot down, and can be situated anywhere, qualities likely to reshape the worlds of security and espionage,” the New York Times reported.
Intelligence officials who spoke to the New York Times said that Iranian agents working for the Israeli Mossad had parked a blue Nissan Zamyad pickup truck on the side of the road connecting Absard to the main highway. A 7.62-mm sniper machine gun was hidden under the tarpaulins and decoy construction material in the truck. A sniper 1,000 miles away then remotely operated the machine gun, killing the top nuclear scientist.
Fakhirzadeh apparently lived in the shadows, under tight security cover. He rarely surfaced in public and did not meet UN nuclear investigators, who visited Iran as part of the delegations from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
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